


lucida sidera

by Walker_August



Category: Prospect (2018)
Genre: F/M, Reader-Insert, Set pre-movie, other tags to come later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23163340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walker_August/pseuds/Walker_August
Summary: Escaping a world that offers you nothing but hopelessness, you start a journey to a new beginning. On the transport where your voyage starts, you meet an intriguing man with his own dark past. He might just be an important piece to finding your way to the new life you dream of. Or perhaps he’ll be your undoing.
Relationships: Ezra/Reader
Kudos: 6





	lucida sidera

The small, elegant Cerphain soars along the dangerously rocky coastline of Zjara’s outer-lands with a grace few other creatures can manage. The bird flies free; weaving amongst the jutting rocks of the cliff-face where it nests, then sharply diving to skim the water for sustenance. It’s black feathered wings spread, catching the wind to guide it on it’s way wherever it wishes to go.

You had always envied those birds, watching them from your one spot of solitude on the whole miserable planet of Zjara – once a world on natural beauty full of creatures like those birds, now a barren land turned grey and cold by it’s uncaring inhabitants. Every night for years and years you dreamt of flying, of sprouting wings and finding your way out of the arid commune with the ease and grace of a Ceprhain.

There was never anything for you on the planet, you had known that as long as you were there; no warmth, no hope, no soul. Just the grey, rocky plateau and the waning moon peeking through the never-ceasing thick blanket of clouds. When you thought of purgatory you always imagine Zjara and it’s vicious icy rivers, the bleak landscape of a dying place.

So you found a way out, a way to fly even higher than the birds. Running away with a clear path of chaos left behind you, destroying what held you in place for so long. No more fear, no more duty. No more. Paying your way on to a visiting shuttle that would dock to the Tanluze, a long distance hauler, and take you across the system and away from the miserable, bone-deep cold of Zjara and it’s people.

Funny then, that the hulking metal transport that will take you away from purgatory feels almost as claustrophobic and caging as your settlement did. Somehow after a week on the ship you are more jealous than ever of creatures who don’t have to rely on the suffocating, behemoth vessels to find their place.

Tanluze is huge and oppressive in it’s structure, but it’s the only hauler that would take you across the system all the way to Tereverus in exchange for your hard earned credits. With all you had to your name – credits earned in secret through various skills cultivated in your years of captivity – you can afford to pay your board on the ship, a bunk in a cabin shared with too many others, and a one-way journey to a world with endless potential and a future you could never dream of in Zjara. Your chance of freedom, if you could make it several weeks on the labyrinthine transport full to the brim with wayfarers just like you – looking for their new start.

–-

One of the few blessings of the grimy, overpopulated Tanluze is the observation deck. Often empty - the vast expanse of stars seemingly unimpressive to the floaters who spent their lives travelling through space – the large windows with a narrow bench facing them is where you find yourself more often than not, in some state of meditation that helps you focus on what’s to come instead of where you’re stuck for the time being.

You watch the stars in quiet wonder and feel so small – a speck of dust on a map so vast and encompassing that you might vanish to thin air in a moment. It’s often like that on the freighter too, left to your own devices and only interacting with the crew you would be leaving for Tereverus with, on Zjara you knew not to draw attention to yourself and that modest manner meant you were left alone for the most part now too.

It’s a shock then that when you’re standing at the window, hand pressed against the thick, cold glass as you will yourself to feel some peace amongst the beauty outside it, that you’re lulled out of your contemplation by a deep, distinctive voice.

“The skies are painted with unnumber’d sparks…” he starts, making you gasp lightly in surprise. Turning, you find the source of the poetic words to be a man with tired, brown eyes and a mess of dark brown hair – an unusual tuft of blonde at the front. He looks worn and weary, but greets you smiling pleasantly.

“They are all fire and every one doth shine, but there’s but one in all doth hold his place” you respond gently, remembering the words from the stash of dusty, near ancient books kept in your quarters back home. “Shakespeare, right?” you flush, pleased beyond expectation to find someone else who knows anything of the old plays.

He nods, looking surprised for a moment before speaking again.

“I suspect this may be your first peregrination aboard a long-haul transport?” he queries, sitting on the narrow metal bench as you turn towards him. “Very few here spend their time observing the cosmos after their first passage. It is truly a delight to see a fellow passenger so enamoured with something others take for granted”

His demeanour is nonthreatening. Pleasing, the way he leans back with his legs outstretched as if he is completely relaxed in your presence. There’s a certain and clear charm to him which to you can only translate as friendly – after all he is the first person to speak to you about anything other than shuttle maintenance. Somehow, and perhaps naively, you feel an air of calm wash over you as you contemplate the stranger.

His clothes and shoes are clearly worn-in, he doesn’t own many more, and you notice the calloused, overworked hands when he rubs his fingers against an itch on his neck. He’s handsome, but not in an obvious way like the clean-cut folk from Central. A wanderer, almost certainly a prospector – dirt under his fingernails and caked in to the tread of his boots.

Immediately you know this is a man who knows the stars and his place in them, and you find yourself intrigued.

“I travelled long-range once before, when I was young. The stars were like magical beings to me, they still fascinate me now. I never really got to see them on…on my home planet” your words are barely more than a whisper, looking away from him as you think back to your long journey from Central to Zjara as a child. How different things might be if you had never had to take that trip.

He continues to watch you, a crease between his eyebrows as he sees your expression change following your words. Does he see that pain in your eyes? The shake of your hands before you clasp them behind your back? No one can know where you came from, not until you’re far far away and that world is behind you.

“How many times have you been on board?” you ask the man, trying to distract from the change in your demeanour. “Does it always feel this…this…lonely?” the last word a whisper.

“Far too many to divulge. Voyaging on the Tanluze can be a laborious task to take on alone, I am certainly sincerely aware of that. If you should ever need a companion to ponder the galaxy or ancient poetry with I would be pleased to offer some succour”

A soft sigh, barely heard, escapes you. It’s easy to be alone but being lonely is another beast, snarling and ugly, one which you spent far too much time with on Zjara. Perhaps this unknown person will make your escape easier on your anguished mind.

“I’d like that a lot, honestly, I brought some books with me you might appreciate. I would appreciate the company more than I can say…Thank you…”

“Ezra” he offers his name and extends a hand.

“Ezra” you murmur back, a pleasant sound from your lips.

Sitting besides him, you turn your gaze back to the glowing specks surrounding you on all sides while he begins to tell you in flowing prose about his experiences amongst them. And while you listen with rapt attention, you feel something intangible rise within your soul – regardless of who this man is, his presence seems to be a catalyst for something spectacular to begin in your life.

All at once you understand that, finally, this is the start of your story.


End file.
